Latest news with #FiveDaysinJuly
Ottawa Citizen
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Ottawa Citizen
Skies clear just in time for magic Blue Rodeo show at jazz fest
Article content The skies cleared just in time for Blue Rodeo. Article content Of course, they did. It's the magic of the Montreal International Jazz Festival, but it's also the magical ties that bind this Toronto band to their fans ici. The forecast all week insisted there was a 90- to 100-per-cent chance of rain at 9:30 on Friday night, but the folks at MétéoMédia clearly haven't been listening to the Five Days in July album often enough. There was no way the big free outdoor Blue Rodeo show at the jazz fest was going to be rained out. Article content Article content And the fans knew it. The crowd stretched all the way back to Ste-Catherine St. and anyone who stayed home because of the forecast will be kicking themselves when their friends tell them how inspirational this soirée was. Article content Article content By the time Jim Cuddy got to belt out Try, the very first Blue Rodeo hit, as the encore and sitting at the keyboard, there was no getting away from the fact this was one of the great Blue Rodeo shows here. Article content I mean not that there have been any Blue Rodeo shows much less than life-affirming. I was there Friday night with my daughter Devan reminiscing about the epic Blue Rodeo shows we'd seen at Théâtre St. Denis and Place des Arts. Friday, they ended with Lost Together and if you weren't choking up just a little bit, then you just don't love this thing called rock'n'roll. Article content You could see Cuddy and fellow lead singer Greg Keelor were just loving this as much as the audience. Article content Article content 'Merci beaucoup,' Cuddy said, near the end. 'Nous adorons Montréal.' Article content Later, Cuddy said: 'We'd like to thank the rain for taking a little break for us and mainly we'd like to thank you for coming out in spite of the weather.' Article content Highlights included an incredibly intense take on Diamond Mine with Keelor rocking his vocal hard, a brilliant Trust Yourself with thousands singing along, and the anthems Til I Am Myself Again and Hasn't Hit Me Yet, which were just as great as you might imagine. Article content I bumped into promoter Rubin Fogel, who was talking about how the first show they did in Montreal was at Club Soda in January 1988, back when they were hardly known here. A year later, that was no longer the case.
Montreal Gazette
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Montreal Gazette
Skies clear just in time for magic Blue Rodeo show at jazz fest
Music By The skies cleared just in time for Blue Rodeo. Of course, they did. It's the magic of the Montreal International Jazz Festival, but it's also the magical ties that bind this Toronto band to their fans ici. The forecast all week insisted there was a 90- to 100-per-cent chance of rain at 9:30 on Friday night, but the folks at MétéoMédia clearly haven't been listening to the Five Days in July album often enough. There was no way the big free outdoor Blue Rodeo show at the jazz fest was going to be rained out. And the fans knew it. The crowd stretched all the way back to Ste-Catherine St. and anyone who stayed home because of the forecast will be kicking themselves when their friends tell them how inspirational this soirée was. By the time Jim Cuddy got to belt out Try, the very first Blue Rodeo hit, as the encore and sitting at the keyboard, there was no getting away from the fact this was one of the great Blue Rodeo shows here. I mean not that there have been any Blue Rodeo shows much less than life-affirming. I was there Friday night with my daughter Devan reminiscing about the epic Blue Rodeo shows we'd seen at Théâtre St. Denis and Place des Arts. Friday, they ended with Lost Together and if you weren't choking up just a little bit, then you just don't love this thing called rock'n'roll. You could see Cuddy and fellow lead singer Greg Keelor were just loving this as much as the audience. 'Merci beaucoup,' Cuddy said, near the end. 'Nous adorons Montréal.' Later, Cuddy said: 'We'd like to thank the rain for taking a little break for us and mainly we'd like to thank you for coming out in spite of the weather.' Highlights included an incredibly intense take on Diamond Mine with Keelor rocking his vocal hard, a brilliant Trust Yourself with thousands singing along, and the anthems Til I Am Myself Again and Hasn't Hit Me Yet, which were just as great as you might imagine. I bumped into promoter Rubin Fogel, who was talking about how the first show they did in Montreal was at Club Soda in January 1988, back when they were hardly known here. A year later, that was no longer the case. Close to 40 years on, many of those same fans are still at the rendezvous. One of those was Anita Stephenson. She and her two sisters came from Guelph just to see Blue Rodeo. She's a huge fan and spent the entire drive here playing Blue Rodeo tracks and singing along to them, which kind of drove her two sisters, Janet and Susan, a little crazy. Anita's seen them 15 times. 'They're Canadian and they're part of our culture,' Stephenson said. 'They brought this Canadiana. They weren't forced to go touring in the U.S. I think the songs are great, the people are great, it's a mix of country and rock, but it's not true country. Some songs are more romantic, some are straight-up anthems. I just like it all.' Her sister Janet said they're not nearly as fanatical as Antia, 'but we support our baby sister.' And they're also making a 'girls' weekend' of it, hanging out at the jazz festival for two days. 'Look at the smile on our face,' Janet said. 'I feel like a little kid,' Anita said. Patrick Beaudet has been a Blue Rodeo fan since 1989, the year he first saw them at the Spectrum. 'I fell in love the first night I saw them,' Beaudet said. Friday night was his 12 th Blue Rodeo show and a forecast predicting heavy rainfall wasn't going to keep him away. 'I'm a fan fini, good weather, bad weather, I was going to be at this show,' Beaudet said. 'I can easily cry listening to Blue Rodeo. It hits me viscerally, inside me, profoundly. It's the lyrics, the harmonies. I like Oasis, Pulp, British rock, but I love the Canadian roots of Blue Rodeo.' Stéphane Fortin is also a hardcore fan and has been for over 30 years. 'I love the melodies,' Fortin said. 'And music is all about emotion.'
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Daniel Lanois, Rick Mercer, Blue Rodeo announced for fall events
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. The fall calendar is starting to fill up with big-name concerts and other events. Both musician-producer Daniel Lanois, comedian-TV personality Rock Mercer and Canadian hitmakers Blue Rodeo announced tours that will bring them to Calgary. Celebrating 40 years together, Blue Rodeo is back on the road with an anniversary tour. They swing into the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium for two shows, on Oct. 1 and 2, before moving on to Edmonton for two shows. East Coast soul singer Adam Baldwin opens for them on all dates. Over the years, the band has won numerous Junos, been put on a Canadian stamp, been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, been named to the Order of Canada, and won the Governor General's Performing Arts Award. They've sold more than four million albums with hits like Five Days in July, Head Over Heels, Lost Together, Try and Diamond Mine. Presale tickets are available June 3 on their website, Lanois, well-known as a producer working with such heavyweights as U2, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Robbie Robertson, is also an eclectic musician who can't be pinned down to any one sound. Born in Hull, Quebec, his music spans folk, classical, soul, ambient, rock and electronica. He plays at the Bella Concert Hall on Oct. 11. The presale starts June 4 at Lastly, Rick Mercer brings his sharp wit and political commentary to Edmonton on Sept. 13 and Calgary on Sept. 14 at the Jubilee Auditoriums as part of his Stand Up for Canada Tour. Mercer is best known for CBC comedy shows This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Made In Canada and Rick Mercer Report. He has written four bestselling books and won nearly 30 Gemini Awards and Canadian Screen Awards. Tickets go on sale June 6 at Love concerts, but can't make it to the venue? Stream live shows and events from your couch with VEEPS, a music-first streaming service now operating in Canada. Click here for an introductory offer of 30% off. Explore upcoming concerts and the extensive archive of past performances.
Vancouver Sun
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Vancouver Sun
Dan Mangan brightens up dark times with new album Natural Light
Natural Light is the seventh album by Vancouver-based musician Dan Mangan. Due out on Arts & Crafts this week, the album was recorded at Toronto producer Jason Haberman's southern Ontario cottage, dubbed Souvenir. A photo of the makeshift studio in the front room of the cabin also became the cover art. The release is the first album that Mangan and his touring band of multi-instrumentalists Haberman, Mike O'Brien and Don Kerr recorded together. The singer admits the purpose of the cabin sessions was to workshop old ideas, develop new ones and treat it all as a zero-pressure preparation for future studio sessions in Los Angeles with a different producer and backing players. It became clear during the process that something else was taking place. Get top headlines and gossip from the world of celebrity and entertainment. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sun Spots will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. In the same way that Blue Rodeo's classic Five Days in July came out of the no-pressure cabin sessions that became the title, Natural Light could have been six days in May. 'There are a lot of things in my life I feel I really worked hard and sweated for, but this was the most serendipitous, joyful and creative experience I've ever had,' said Mangan. 'Some of these songs have been ruminating for a while, getting hummed in the shower and being extremely considered down to the choices of consonants, melody, etc. But the execution of them as a recording was unplanned and barely discussed. It's just a gift.' The album opens with It Might Be Raining, a surprisingly rare reference to our frequent weather by a Vancouver artist. The casually strummed ode to navigating the 'oceans of bull s—' that we are all up against is a perfect beginning to the 13-track recording. It shimmers with an emotional intensity juxtaposed against the kind of easy-flowing instrumentation that hearkens back to gems such as Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. 'It Might Be Raining was a new song I was excited about and the first song we did three takes and — boom — locked it away,' he said. 'Suddenly, everyone is going, 'Holy crap, that went well.' And the second day we did two songs, day three was four, and so on. When you go into a major studio like The Warehouse and everything you do is bleeding money, this was the opposite. Because we thought we weren't recording a record.' Right up until the very end of the sessions, this casual approach imbued the recording and the results were something Mangan has never experienced before. By the end of the week, it was obvious they had made a record. 'Personally, emotionally, I've never experienced that kind of total detachment from any result and it was blissful,' he said. 'I think it is a high point of my whole career. Even going back and adding some horns and strings, this whole time, I've been revelling in the experience.' Orchestral contributions came from composer Jesse Zubot, who previously recorded and toured with Mangan's big band Blacksmith. These kept in the spirit of the initial sessions, as songs such as the lead single Melody and My Dreams Are Getting Weirder are all filled with a glorious vibe of open space. The latest advance track, Diminishing Returns, may be the first pop single to reference the global climate crisis. Mangan notes the irony of having the third lead-up number to a major album being titled Diminishing Returns. He sadly reflects that the refrain of 'one place underwater, another burns, no one is surprised, but everyone is shocked' came from watching news reports on a U.S. tour leg where the West Coast was on fire and the East Coast was flooded due to hurricanes. It's one of the best songs on Natural Light. 'We're all up against it, going on with our day-to-day robotic lives like it's business as usual and planning ahead, still presuming that it's all going to be here,' he said. 'Meanwhile, doomscrolling at midnight, you're asking, 'What are we up against?' I reflect on these things and the real issues that people are facing and how you can arrive somewhere positive.' A founder of the Side Door Access booking platform to improve independent musicians touring opportunities and revenue generation, he is well aware of the personal pressure to keep positive about the modern music industry. At the time of this interview, Mangan note he is still embracing the joy of creating Natural Light before the coming business of releasing records comes into play. Then, things get serious for artists facing severe fiscal challenges. 'Every day that draws closer to the actual release date and it becoming a quantifiable marketplace product, I brace for the other side of all this bliss,' he said. 'It can or can't do well, and could be a case of so many years of my life having people react with 'So, what else are you working on?' But the coming shows will be incredible, because everyone in this band makes music together so naturally and gets along so well. Our band text stream is titled FLG, for F—in' Love You Guys.' Many dates on the fall tour in support of Natural Light have been announced already, including an Oct. 3 date at the Vogue Theatre with opener Bells Larsen. The all-ages show is already sold out. sderdeyn@
CBC
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
40 years of Blue Rodeo: Keelor and Cuddy's friendship is at the heart of the band's success
Blue Rodeo is one of Canada's most beloved bands. At the heart of the group is a songwriting team dubbed the Lennon and McCartney of Canada — lifelong friends Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor. The documentary Blue Rodeo: Lost Together offers a rare peek into the formative days of their friendship. "Our first actual meeting was a bit of a confrontation," Keelor said in the film. "We met on a football field where I was a defensive end and he was a quarterback. [Jim] was throwing the ball, and I was on his blind side. And just as he was about to let go, I creamed him." However, the two were not fated to remain rivals. In the aftermath of a friend's death, Cuddy revealed his previously hidden musical talent, and Keelor began to see him in a new light. "A friend of ours died in a car accident," Keelor said. "At that age — 16, 17 — you had a total loss of how to react and how to be with each other. "We were sitting in Jim's mother's house, and there was a beautiful parlour piano in there. And Jim sat down at the piano.… He wrote a song for [our friend] David Soper. And we're all just, like, dumbfounded. We're all crying. I had never heard Jim sing before." Cuddy remembered that day. "I kept all my musical stuff very private because it was very embarrassing at that age," he said in an interview. "I remember the scene and I don't know why I was nervy enough to play it there." Inspired in part by Cuddy, Keelor would later pick up the guitar. Soon, music would flow through both of them. Though Cuddy and Keelor were a study in contrast, they became friends. Cuddy was disciplined — "a provider," Keelor said. Keelor had a "maverick spirit," said Cuddy. After high school, the two stayed connected. Cuddy was buoyed by Keelor taking music as seriously as he did. "I never thought in the early days that Greg was doing this half-heartedly," Cuddy said. "I always thought that he was fully committed, as was I." When the time was right, they started a band. "When I finished university in the spring of '78, you very kindly came to pick me up," Cuddy told Keelor in the documentary. "And we're driving back, and I was saying to you that I was going to devote a year to music. And you said, 'Why don't we get a band?' And I said 'Yes.' "And we've honestly had a band together ever since that moment." That band took on a variety of guises before it became Blue Rodeo. Blue Rodeo formed in 1984 and ever since, they've been known for their indefatigable work ethic and goodwill. Seminal, stunning records like Outskirts, Five Days in July and The Things We Left Behind would embed them in the nation's fabric. Through it all, Cuddy and Keelor's friendship has remained the foundation of the band. "The relationship between Jim and I is a funny one, of course, and a beautiful one," Keelor said. "It's an uncanny sort of friendship in this sort of storybook. Our social security numbers are eight digits apart, so we sort of have this connection." "We've committed to each other and trust that commitment to each other," Cuddy said. "And obviously it's worked out, but we've also had this crazy shared experience that now we look at each other and think, 'You can't describe this to anybody' — the things that have happened to us, the things we've done, the way we've been treated, good and bad. And so there's a huge love and fondness in that, in our shared lives."
